It's felt like a Star Trek set since I've been able to ask my electronics verbal questions and get spoken answers. Well, today I was back in Star Fleet, using a Universal Translator.

I had to communicate with a home health aid that spoke no English. I spoke the question to my phone and told it to translate what I said to Spanish. Then she did the same thing from Spanish to English. It was really cool, and better than Star Trek, because I could use my communicator (phone) instead of needing a separate device.

To boldly go where no .......

Cool! Which app were you using, 'Zip? Google Translate?

I Think so. I just start the process by saying "OK Google" and a short digital chirp means it's ready to listen to me.
Usually I ask it questions, but this time I spoke a sentence then finished it with "translate to Spanish".
It spoke with a very nice accent, and also showed both languages on the screen.

I could see where that gizmo might come in handy when a person receives one of those calls from Nigeria, or making a call to a service center to clear up a problem with a product that doesn't work.


WuzzFuzz

Google Translate can also change script (newspaper) into your preferred language. Just hold your phone over the print that is in Spanish and it changes to English!

It took a week for this woman to become available and she IS the replacement for the last aide who was too frail to be of much help.

With the aging population, the demand for health aides where my mom lives outstrips supply, and I'm thankful to get the help with her.

I held my phone over the printed page but nothing happened. Maybe the curly cord got in the way?

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Bill

Most people would be.

We are going to see more of that here in the US in the future. The plain and simple truth is the demand for health care for aging Americans is going to require lots of people who speak English as a second language or possibly don't speak English at all. If they live and work here long enough they'll learn the language. Look in any college curriculum and you will see lots of classes teaching English as a second language.

I just got off the phone with my wife. She got up at 4am this morning to make a two hour trip in heavy traffic to visit her mom. Her and her brother are taking her for an evaluation to see if she needs assisted living. She lives by herself and she's 88. Neither my wife or her brother can care for her as they both live 2 hours away. My wife has a sister near by but she isn't always around to help her with the day to day stuff.

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That's just somebody talkin.

My wife is a masters level RN who works for a home health company. The hours are long, the work is hard, the required charting is unbelievably complex and staff turn over is incredibly high due to the high work load, long hours and mediocre pay.

It's also a service that is only indirectly funded by Medicaid, as hospitals don't receive payment on re-admits within a certain period of time. Thus, hospital associated home health care is "funded" by savings from un-reimbursed re-admits that are prevented. Which is to say the Medicaid portion of it is badly underfunded which leaves them very short handed. As an example, they allocate time based on a point system and 4 points per day is normal, 5 points per day is the maximum, and my wife normally puts in 7 points per day - for no additional pay.

Having to work with clients who are often unappreciative doesn't help, and I applaud your open mindedness, understanding and appreciation of the problems involved.

^^^^what he said. Informative, helpful post, thank you. My Spanish usage has really improved since moving to the Southwest. Now if I could only find some French, German and Russian speakers so I don't 'lose' these languages!

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Thank you for that explanation. It explains why the help is now available after moms repeated hospitalizations lately.

I'm way more than appreciative of the help. After a year of being an Alzheimer's caregiver, I'm tapped out. Any sincere and compassionate help is a blessing, and I don't care if they only speak Klingon.

Does the "translator" app speak Swedish?

I want a Swedish home health aid.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I cleaned up this thread.

If you find your post missing it's because this thread is about translation devices, not opinions about immigration or what languages should or should not be spoken in America or elsewhere.

Didn't the Universal Translator translate languages known and unknown?

Yep... said "OK Google" to my smart device and asked. The Star Trek UT did do unknown alien languages.

We need to come up with a new term for smartphones, so many people hear the phone part and think their flip phone does the same thing, or that a smartphone's primary purpose is to make telephone calls. In the 1990s this type of person could not figure out what the Internet would ever be good for.